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horse hair on belly of bow

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pierce_schmeichel:
Hey guys I have been shooting this idea around in my mind for a while and just haven't really done it. So i have always wanted to make a horn bow but have never had access to horn. I thought about using horse hair for the belly of the bow. The idea is to dunk the horse hair in hide glue and adhere it to the belly of the bow with the hide glue. In a very similar way you would use flax fibers on the back of the bow. Since horn and hair are pretty much the same thing I wonder if it would work. WHat do you guys think? Do you think this might work effectively? or do you think it would buckle and delaminate or something?

Hamish:
Even if you eventually perfected the process, It would be much easier to source some horn(even if you pay top dollar), than try what you suggest.

Theoretically you might be able do what you suggest. Hair and horn are both keratin, but horn is very dense and tightly compressed. Its hard to know how much thickness of hair you would need to achieve the same effect as horn.
 Would hide glue be the best choice, especially if you need a lot of thickness? Would it become too brittle?

Some type of natural/synthetic hybrid from hair and a modern resin set into a strip, like a piece of fibreglass backing might be viable.
But then is it really all the hair doing the work, or is it the resin?

So I doubt you would be successful just slapping on some hair in glue on the belly, and expecting to get similar results to a traditional horn bow.

The bow might hold together, if it's not too short, but in all likelihood the hair wouldn't be of the correct thickness to properly resist compression, and would just cover up the real damage happening underneath.

Selfbowman:
I agree. Atlantic coral Enterprizes has good prices on horn just saying. About a dollar a inch in length for gemsbok horn . Just takes one with a band saw.

pierce_schmeichel:
Hamish Yeah that's What I was thinking. I think I should do a simple test with Maybe a mini bow. That way I don't do any damage to a full sized bow. I guess we will never know unless we test it.

I also think I might try just taking some horse hair and dunking it in the hide glue and then just setting it on some wax paper to form a "horn" of some sort..in a bow shape of course. After that I guess ill sinew back that and see how It does.

I don't really see a point in using a resin tho because at that point you aren't really using natural materials and might as well use fiberglass.

We know that hide glue does well enough in tension because It works on the backs of bows with sinew. but I guess we will find out if it works in compression without buckling or if it has any potential at all. 

also thank you selfbowman for the horn source!

willie:
welcome to PA, Pierce

if you like experimenting, you already know that there could be some "issues" with the untried. 

Maybe a lever design with the belly enhancement limited to short wide working sections?  there are some tutorials on applying sinew with rubber bicycle tube wrappings in the archives that could help 

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